Mysticism and Judaism and dreams, oh my!

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Growing up Conservative Jewish in Ohio, Rabbi Cantor Judy Greenfeld turned away from her family traditions after her beloved father was murdered. Judaism became an unbearably painful reminder of her loss, and she became a "seeker" of other spiritual pathways as she tried to outrun her mourning. She explored, Buddhism, dance, holistic medicine, and psychology. Eventually, she found her way through dreams and mysticism back to Judaism, embracing traditions like Kabbalah, back to the religion and community she was born into, and discovered she had never really left.

In her books, she uses her unique interpretations and experiences to make Jewish traditions accessible for anyone, offering practices and prayers to make the day to day business of living just a little bit easier for everyone.

GLOSSARY:
Zionism: A political movement founded by Theodor Herzl in the 1890s to create a Jewish homeland, based in an assimilationist philosophy and cemented by antisemitic incidents like the Dreyfus affair (the false accusation and imprisonment of a French Jewish military officer that came to symbolize Jews' supposed disloyalty). 

Tzitzit: The dangling fringe of the Jewish prayer shawl, called a tallit.

Ma tovu: Traditionally said in morning prayers or, for Ashkenazic Jews, upon entering the synagogue, the first lines of the prayer for which it is named mean: "How good are your tents O Jacob, your dwellings O Israel."

Sitting Shiva: From the Hebrew word for seven, sheva, the tradition of mourning for seven days including customs like sitting low to the ground and covering mirrors, bringing the family of the deceased food, and sitting with them, in silence if they want. 

La dor va dor: Meaning "from generation to generation," also translated as "forever." 

Philological study: Text study using grammar, style and language to analyze meaning and origin.

Pardes: An acronym (Heb. פַּרְדֵ״ס) usually associated with Kabbalah that denotes a specific type of critical text interpretation

Kabbalah: A form of Jewish mysticism that became widespread in Provence and Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. 

Gematria: A numerology system using the numbers which are assigned to Hebrew letters (Hebrew letters are also used as numbers)

LINKS ETC: On the idea of prayer replacing “sacrifice”: It is thought that after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and expulsion of the Jews from Israel that without a central place to make animal sacrifices, the disparate surviving Jewish communities came to see prayer as the new form of sacrifice and "work" (avodah in Hebrew) acceptable to God.  

Jonathan Sacks
Connie Kaplan
Modeh Ani

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